We continue watching a small group of White-tailed Deer coming to our house every day. During the last couple days it became more and more clear to us that our favorite little fawn “Struppi” (read my post from February, 18) is facing probably the tragic loss of its mother. She comes always alone and we had two dead deer laying beside the highway down in the valley earlier this week. The other members of the group do everything to scare her away whenever “Struppi" tries to join them near our bird feeders.
Struppi
Last Wednesday I enjoyed a backlight situation, created by the very low sun, when I caught two shots of a doe hitting “Struppi” with its front leg and bringing the little guy down to its knees. When animals move I shoot mostly short bursts in ‘Continues shooting mode’ with 6 frames per second to maximize my chances for a sharp image. This time I got the two images that tell the story.
Yes, some of you may say this is sad, or the other deer are mean, but this is just natural behavior for those animals. They all try to protect their food sources and want the best for their own offspring. “Struppi” seems to do fine, she is always the first one here in the morning and just because of that she eats probably more corn than any other deer… By the way, she took a little nap again today. This time right beside our old oak tree trunk in the front yard… :-)